
Class JE_1^ 



OBITF.ARY NOTICES, 

AND 

OTHER TESTIMONIALS OF RESPECT. 

ox Tll E 

OCCASION OF THE DEATH 

OF T II K 

H.iN.CHA'SK.lVILLIAMS.LL.D. 



KO R M E HI.Y 



CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPKEME COURT, 



AM) AKTKHWAliDS 



(iOVEHNOR OF THE STATE OF YEKMONF, 

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED 

A BKIKF BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE DECKA.SED. 

Prepared for Publication in 1852, 
li\ THi: HON. I>SAAC V. ItKDFIKl.D, I.I-. !>.. 

CHIEF JUSTICE OK VERMONT. 



RUTLAND : 

GEO. A. TUTTLE & CO., PRINTERS. 

1 854 



OBITUARY NOTICES. 



OTHER TESTIMONIALS OF RESPECT, 



ON THE 



OCCASION OF THE DEATH 



HoN.CHA'SK.AVILLIAlS.LL.D. 



K O R M E K L Y 



CHIEF JUSTICE OP THE SUPBEME COUKT, 



AN'D AFTERWARDS 



GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF VEIIMONT, 



TO WHICH 13 PREFIXED 



\ BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF THE DECEASED. 
Prepared for Publication in 1852, 



TJY TFIE HON. ISAAC F. llKDFIKT,r>, T,I.. D. 

cuiEP justI';e op ViCRMOXT 



RUTLAND : 

GEO. A. TUTTI.K .<v CO.. PHINTEUS. 

1854 






-"7^/ 



/r^ 



The following notices of the death of the late GOVERNOR 
WILLIAMS, with the other testimonials of respect to his Kcniory, 
have been collected together at the request of a number of the friends 
of the deceased, who were desirous of having them embodied in a 
form more readily accessible and more convenient for preservation 
than they have heretofore been. 

To these has been prefixed a brief biograpliical sketch of the 
deceased, which was prepared during his life time, (in July, 1852) 
at the request of the publisher of one of the popular publications of 
the day, by the Hon. Isaac F. Redfield, LL. D., the present suc- 
cessor of the deceased as Chief Justice of Vermont, and who was for 
more than ten years associated with him on the Bench of the Supreme 
Court, during which time a most unreserved intimacy and friendship 
existed between them. This gave Jddgk Redfield a more thorough 
and intimate acquaintance with the private opinions and sentiments 
of the deceased than is possessed by scarcely any other person now 
living, and his sketch is believed to present as faithful and a more 
full account of the life and character of the deceased than any of 
the many notices which have since appeared. 



CHARLES KILBORN WILLIAMS, LL D. 



Tub Pkksent* GtOVERnor of Vkrmont was bora at Cauiljiiilgc, 
Mass. Jan'y. 24, 1782. He is the son of the Rev. Samuel Wil- 
liams, LL. D., the early historian of Vermont, whose work form.'' 
the chief basis of tlie later histories of the State during tlic forma- 
tion period of its civil institutions. He was, at that time, the Profes- 
sor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Harvard College. 
He was a man of great learning and ability, and liis counsel was al- 
ways sought with avidity and followed with confidence l)y the lead- 
ing men of the State, ever after his removal here in ITi'O until the 
time of his death in 1817. 

Governor Williams has resided in Rutland since the period of his 
early childhood, and the unaffected sentiment of respect and love, 
amounting almost to veneration, in which he is there held, by all 
classes, is the best testimony which could be given of his eminent 
worth. It were needless to enlarge upon such a topic. Language 
is scarcely adequate to its faithful delineation. The truth would 
.seem like exaggeration, one needs to go there to feel its full force. 
And this is a testimony which cannot be got up for an occasion ; 
which cannot bo bought up by soino single act of splendid munifi- 
cence ; which cannot be simulated for effect ; and which will not fail 
to make itself known where it exists. And we do not hesitate to 
affirm that no man in the state ever carried down to the close of life 
a more enviable testimony from his neighbors and townsmen. 

The drj"^ detail of the successive incidents in the life of one who 
has earned such a reputation " by patient continuance in well doing,"' 
to his familiar and intimate friends, seems scarcely less than a mock- 
ery. Its very leanness seems like studied depreciation ; like making 
liis history a mere shadow, a skeleton, without the tissue or drapery 

* July 1852. See prefatory note. 



of life. Bat it is too true to be disguised, that tliis is all the historian 
can gather up, of the most virtuous, the most self-sacrificing life 
waon its earthly footsteps are once accomplished. It then becomes 
literally, to all earthly seeming, " like water spilt upon the ground 
which cannot be gathered up again." 

Governor Williams entered Williams College in 179G and gradu- 
ated, in course, in 1800, at the age of eighteen. He was appointed 
tutor in that College in 1802, but having at that time a favorable 
opportunity to enter upon the active duties of his profession, so soon 
Hi he should be admitted to the bar, he declined the appointment. He 
was admitted to the bar of Rutland County Court, March Term, 
1803. Since that time, for the most part, he has been unremitting- 
ly engaged in the active, laborious and responsible duties of his pro- 
fession, in the several offices of Attorney, Counsellor and Judge. 
He sustained a very high standing at the bar as a sound lawyer and 
successful advocate. In one essential, cardinal excellence, his repu- 
tation, as a member of the bar, is perhaps worthy of special com- 
mendation to the members of the profession every where and at all 
times, since the temptations there to moral delinquencies, are so con- 
stant, and so specious often as to be difficult of detection, and not 
easily resisted always when discovered. He was never suspected of 
caiTying his ease by mere management and chicanery. He chose to 
lose thos3 cases which he could not gain fairly. He supposed, when 
he had dons all for his client that truth and justice would warrant, 
that he had done enough, and chose to trust all the consequences 
where he must trust all the consequences of his life. In short he 
was just as scrupulous, just as conscientious in his efforts at the bar, 
as he would be upon the bench or any where else. It is believed 
that he never studied to discover or to devise a rule of casuistry, by 
which, a man may be allowed to do an act, for his client, in the 
conduct of a cause, without reproach, which if done under other 
cii'cumstances, would brand him with perpetual infiimy in the judg- 
ment of all conscientious and generous minded men. 

In 1808 he was called upon by Governor Smith, to take command, 
as major, of a detachment of militia called into service by draught, 
to enforce the Euibargo Law, as it was called. That law had become 
so obnoxious to the people on the frontier, that it was found impossi- 
ble for the ordinary municipal authorities to enforce its observance. 



The odium attaching to the law was unfortunately somewhat connected 
with the acrimony and animosity of the political divisions of the 
time ; and it is creditable to Governor Williams, that he was select- 
ed, at the early age of twenty-six, for so delicate an office, by Grov- 
ernor Smith who was of the opposite political party, and when he 
(Major W.) himself was known to belong to the party opposed to 
the passage of the very act of Congress which he was thus called 
upon to enforce at the point of the bayonet. It shows in a strong 
light the confidence felt by Governor Smith in his patriotism, capa- 
city and purity of character. 

It was during this campaign that several conflicts occurred between 
the constituted authorities of the national government, sustained by 
the military force called into service, for that purpose, and the op- 
posers of the act of Congress, prohibiting all commercial intercourse 
with foreign nations. In some of these, lives were lost, upon either 
side, and the resistauts were attempted to be proceeded against for 
the crime of treason in the criminal courts of the national govern- 
ment. Bat it was ruled, at tliat early day, by Mr. Justice Livings- 
ton of the Circuit Court that the offence did not constitute the crime 
of treason. And we are not aware that the soundness of the decision 
has ever been questioned by any sound lawyer upon dispassionate 
examination. That made it seem the more wonderful to those en- 
gaged in these early conflicts, that the government in thoir recent 
conflicts at Christiana, Penn., and at Syracuse, N. Y., should still 
persist in denominating the offance high treason against the national 
sovereignty. 

Governor Williams also served hi.^ country during one campaign, 
in the war of 1812, as major of militia, in a regiment called into 
service to protect the northern frontier. 

He was the Representative of the town of Rutland in the General 
Assembly for the years 1809, 1811, 1814, 1815, 1820, 1821, and 
again, in 1849, after his retirement from the Bench, by the general 
concurrence of all political parties in the town. 

He was State's Attorney for the County of Rutland for the years 
1814 and 1815. The office was then expected to be given to one 
who would be able to sustain himself, and to carry his cases securely 
without aid against the combined talent and skill of the bar, as, in 
important criminal prosecutions, the prosecuting officer was very 



8 

likely to eacountor an imposing array of legal force on tho part of 
the defence. 

He was elected Judge of the Supreme Court in 1822, 1823, and 
1 824, and held the office for the two former years but declined it the 
latter year. He was appointed Collector of the Customs for the 
district of Vermont in 1825, and held that office until October, 1829, 
when he was again elected to the Bench of the Suj)reme Court. To 
this office he was annually elected seventeen successive years, during 
the last thirteen of which he held the place of Chief Justice, a far 
longer term than any other one has ever held that office in this State. 
Jle received the degree of LL. D. from Middlebury College in 1834. 
and retired from the Bench, at his own earnest solicitation, in 184G. 

The resolutions passed by the Rutland County Bar, upon the oc- 
casion of his announcing his determination no longer to remain upon 
the Bench, will express more surely than we could be expected to 
do the general sentiment in regard to his services and his retirement. 

The following is a transcript of the record of the resolutions above 
icferred to : 

" At a meeting of the members of the Bar of the County of Rut- 
land, huld at the Court House in Rutland on the eighteenth day of 
September, 184G, on motion. Gen. Jonas Clark, of Middletown, was 
tailed to the Chair, and Henry Hale, of Orwell, appointed Secretary. 

" On motion, a committee of three, consisting of the Hon. Solo- 
mon Foot of Rutland, Caleb B. Harrington, Esq., of Middletown, 
and George W. Harman, Esq. of Pawlet, were appointed by the Chair 
to report resolutions exjjressive of the feelings of the members of the 
Bar, on the occasion of the contemplated retirement from the Bench 
of Chief Justice Williams. 

" After a short interval, the committee, through Mr. Foot, their 
Chairman, reported the following resolutions, which were unanimously 
adopted : 

" WiiEijEAS, we have learned from Chief Justice Williams his de- 
termination to leave the Bench of the Supreme Court of this State, 
at the close of his present term ; 

'^Resolved, That the members of this Bar entertain for the per- 
(^onal and official character of the Hon. Cuaules K. Williams the 
highest respect and regard, and learn with profound regret his deter- 
mination to retire from a position which he has so long occupied and 



.•^o highly adorned, and by whose legal learning and ability, and uni- 
form dignity of character and deportment in the discharge of his offi- 
cial duties, the judiciary of Vermont has been elevated to the highest 
standard of respectability, both at home and abroad. 

"Resolved, That our sincere personal respect, collectively and 
individually, is hereby tendered to Judge Williams, and that the 
ties which have so long united us in our professional relations will not 
be severed by his voluntary retirement to private life. 

"^ Resolved, That the Clerk of this Court be requested to spread 
the proceedings of this meeting upon the docket of this term, and 
also to furnish a copy of the record to Chief Justice Williams. 

"On motion, it was also voted that the proceedings of the meeting 
be published in the Rutland Herald, and thereupon the meeting ad- 
journed, sine die.'" 

In the spring of 1848, Governor Williams was unanimously 
elected a member of the Council of Censors, whose office it ib to 
inquire into any violaltions of the State Constitution during the pre- 
ceding term of seven years, and to recommend such alterations in 
the fundamental law of the State as they deem expedient. This 
election is the more noticeable, as, at the time, the State was di- 
vided into three political parties, and his name was placed at the 
head of all the tickets, each of which, in other respects, contained 
different names from both the others. Ui^on the meeting of the 
Council, he was also unanimously chosen its President. 

He was elected Governor of the State in 1850 and 1851 by the 
popular suffi-age, which has not often been the case for several years 
past — a majority of the votes being required for an election. In 
1851 he announced, in his annual message to the Legislature, his 
desire not to be considered a candidate for re-election. 

It may now fairly be said of the subject of this brief and imper- 
fect sketch, that his public life, which began at twenty-six, is fast 
drawing to its final close on the eve of seventy-one, thus filling the 
entire space of half a century. And of how very few men, whose 
public life extends over so large a term, can it be justly said there 
is so little " which, dying, one would wish to blot." His public 
fame will, no doubt, rest mainly upon his published opinions in law 
and chancery, during the term of his judicial life, which were nume- 
rous, and embrace a very wide range of topics, and will be found in 



10 

the first and second volumes of D. Chipman's Reports, and in the 
series of Vermont Reports, from the second to the eighteenth vol- 
umes inclusive. 

It would be difficult, if, indeed, it were desirable, to designate with 
much accuracy or precision any considerable number of his opinions 
which are specially distinguished above the others. At the time he 
came upon the Bench, few cases had been reported in the State, and 
we had very little law which we could call our own, beyond the stat- 
utes of the Legislature, and they have not always remained as stable 
as could be desired. During the period that he remained upon the 
Bench, many very important principles were established in our law, 
and to Governor Williams wc are largely indebted for many of the 
most important and most salutary of those determinations. 

Most of his earlier opinions in the Vermont Reports, and many of 
his later ones, are very thorouo;h and elaborate, extendins; to all the 
kindred analogies of the law : and still it does not occur to us that 
it can justly be said that any of Governor Williams' opinions, 
while on the Bench, contain a single paragraph which was not appa- 
rently forced upon him by the exigencies of the case, and which is 
not indispensable to a fair and full discussion of the matter in hand, 
or which has, in any sense, the air of pretension or parade. There 
is in his written opinions, as there was in his public administration of 
the law, a wonderful forgetfulness of self. He is a sensitive man — 
a man of reserve and prudence, and withal a man of great kindliness 
and courtesy, and one who would never invite collision with any one ; 
but his moral and religious appreciation of human responsibility, is 
such as to sink into utter insignificance all merely personal and sel- 
fish considerations, when weighed against official or personal obliga- 
tions, however painful or difficult to be performed, or however disas- 
trous the ultimate consequences might be likely to prove to himself 
in a temporal point of view. 

If he has any one peculiarity of the judicial mind more prominent 
than all others, it is a very marked regard to justice in the individual 
case in hand, as opposed to a blind devotion to mere precedent, at the 
expense of moral equity and right reason. He is far more influenced 
in his opinions upon all subjects by a regard to the great and control- 
ling principles of absolute and eternal justice than by the mere con- 
ventionalism of human enactments. The blind and headlon"; devo- 



11 

tion to precedent, whieh has been with speculative and philosophical 
minds, to some extent, the reproach of the law, as incasing itself in 
a kind of cast iron conservatism, is a far more noticeable peculiarity 
of the legal profession in new States than in those of more age and 
experience, where the necessity of relaxation to meet the exigencies 
of peculiar circumstance has oftener become apparent ; and the same 
feature is oftener found in youthful and inexperienced minds than in 
those whose wisdom has become ripe and matured, by studying the 
exceptions to general rules rather than the rules themselves. The 
mere novice well enough comprehends the importance and necessity 
of general rules of some kind of philosophical abstractions ; but it 
requires great wisdom and severely chastened experience in the affairs 
of life to know the indispensable exceptions to all generalizations. 

One of the leading opinions of Chief Justice Williams, and which 
at the time seemed likely to incur some degree of popular criticism, 
has proved eminently acceptable to the public mind in this State and 
has been generally followed in the other states. It is the case of 
Lnjon V. Strong, 6 Vert. R. 219, where contracts made on Sunday 
are declared not to form the proper ground of an action in the courts 
of this State. The entire subject of illegal contracts is there very 
learnedly and thoroughly reviewed, and the controlling doctrine of 
the case very forcibly and satisfactorily declared. 

His opinion in the case of the Executors of Burr v. Smith et. al., 
7 Vert. E.. 241, embracing, as it does, the entire subject of charita- 
ble uses in this State, and consequently their existence independent 
of the statute of 43 Elizabeth, the English statute of charitable uses, 
and covering a space of more than thirty-five pages in the reports, 
is a most masterly discussion of one of the most important subjects 
which has ever come before the courts of this country. At that time 
(1835) the subject had attracted comparatively little attention in this 
country, and was settled in not more than two or three of the States. 
Since that time the view there taken by the Chief Justice has been 
vqry extensively adopted in the other States, although the opinion 
then pronounced was that of a divided court. 

Another opinion, delivered by him while Chief Justice, has per- 
haps attracted more attention than any other of his published opin- 
ions. It is the case of Smith v. Nelson, 18 Vert. R. 511, and is 
certainly a very able and ingenious and persuasive argument to 



12 

establish the point of the subordination of all ecclesiastical authority 
in this country to the final revision of the judicial tribunals of the 
civil government. It has been received with marked approbation by 
many of the law journals of the country and by some law writers of 
distinguished ability and estabhshed reputation. The distinguished 
editor of the last edition of the Commentaries upon American Law, 
the Hon. William Kent, thus characterizes this case in his note to 
the edition. " In this last case the relation of the ecclesiastical to 
the civil power is discussed much at large, and the opinion of Chief 
Justice Williams is marked by extraordinary perspicuity, precision 
and strength." We could add nothing to such a testimony from such 
a source. We could enumerate many other of his judicial arguments, 
which merit and some of which have received distinguished commend- 
ation out of the State, but our time and our space would fail us. 

The proceedings of the Rutland County Bar in requesting Gov- 
nor Williams, while upon the bench, to sit for his portrait, are not 
unworthy of mention here ; and this cannot perhaps be better done 
than by setting forth the correspondence which took jjlace in refer- 
ence to the u:atter which was as follows : 

"Rutland, 26th Sept. 1845. 

" Dear Sir, — At a meeting of the members of the Rutland 
County Bar, holden this day at the Court House, it was 

" Resolved, That as a token of the high estimation in which they 
hold the long and eminent public services of the present Chief Jus- 
tice of this State, of their ajjpreciation of the distinguished ability 
with which he has so long discharged the judicial duties devolving 
upon him, and of the elevated character and dignity he has imparted 
to the judiciary of this State, the members of this bar will procure a 
full length portrait to be taken of Chief Justice Williams, to be 
placed in the Rutland County Court Room. 

" The undersigned being appointed a Committee to carry out the 
object of the above resolution, beg leave to ask you to designate such 
time as will bo most convenient to yourself to sit for the portrait. 
Mr. B. F. Mason is selected as the artist to do the work. 

"You will be pleased to accept the assurances of our individual 

respect and esteem. 

" SOLOMON FOOT. 
"EDGAR L. ORMSBEE. 
'• C. B. HARRINGTON. 
To the Hon. Cua's. K. Williams." 



13 

"Rutland, Sept. 27, 1845. 

" Gentlemen : Your note of the 26th instant, containing the reso- 
lution passed at a meeting of the Bar of Rutland County, on that 
day, was received this morning. 

" I cannot but feel deeply grateful for such a tribute of affection 
and respect from the members of that Bar with whom I have been 
connected for more than forty years. 

" Having since my admission in 1803 resided in this county, and 
having been constantly since that time connected with the Bar either 
as practitioner or as a Judge, I have had every opportunity to under- 
stand its character, ability and worth as well as that of its individ- 
ual members. The knowledge thus acquired has given them a high 
place in my estimation ; and I assure you that it is with pleasure and 
with pride that I remember my connection with them. This renders 
the mark of their approbation, expressed in the resolution, the more 
flattering and acceptable. 

" When I call to mind the urbanity, indulgence, and strict deco- 
rum which has characterized the conduct of its members towards me 
since I have presided in the courts in this county, I feel under obli- 
gation to comply with their wishes, and to assure them, collectively 
and individually, that I entertain for them sentiments of deep affec- 
tion and great respect. I apprehend, however, that their partiality 
and friendship has led them to place too high a value on my services, 
and I am very sure it has led them to overlook many imperfections. 

" I know of nothing which will render it inconvenient for me to 
comply with their wishes at any time when most convenient for others. 

" Permit me to return my thanks to you, gentlemen, for the man- 
ner in which you have communicated to me the wishes of the Bar, 
and be pleased to accept for yourselves the assurance of my high 
consideration and esteem. 

" With great respect, your obdt. servant, 

"CH. K. WILLIAMS. 
" To Hon. Solomon Foot, and Messrs. Edgar L. Ormsbec and Caleb 

B. Harrington, Esqs." 



The portrait was painted by Mr. B. F. Masou during tlie ensuing 
autumn, and, when completed, was placed, as originally designed, in 



14 

the Court House in Rutland, where it remained until October, 1846, 
when, on account of the room not being of sufficient height, in refer- 
ence to the size of the portrait, to have it show advantageously, and 
at the suggestion and solicitation of many friends of Judge W., from 
diffarent parts of the State, the members of the Bar for whom it was 
painted determined to present it to the State, to be placed in the 
Capitol. This design was carried into effect, and the portrait, which 
is generally esteemed an excellent likeness, now adorns the Senate 
Chamber, in the east wing of the State Capitol, at Montpelicr. 

In closing this brief memorial, we deem it not inappropriate to 
mention that Governor Williams is an exemplary and consistent 
christian — in the communion of the Episcopal Church — whose life 
adorns his profession. We esteem this the more worthy of notice, 
as it is so very rare with the prominent public men in this country. 
We have talked ourselves hoarse against a state establishment in re- 
ligion, which is no more likely to exist in this country than that of 
the Grand Lama. But it has produced one very marked effect : our 
prominent public men have ceased to be even nominally christians : 
religion is supposed to be a matter with which public men have 
nothing to do. 

Governor Williams was married in 1817 to the daughter of the 
Hon. Chauncy Langdou, of Castleton, who was one of the most emi- 
nent and worthy of the leading men of the State from 1792, when 
he came into the State from Connecticut, until 1830, when he died 
at the age of sixty-six. He was for many years a distinguished mem- 
ber of the Legislative Council, held many other subordinate offices of 
trust and respon^bility, and was a member of Congress in 1815 and 
1816. 

Governor Williams has seven children living, three sons and four 
daughters ; and, in his wife and children, is certainly blessed far be- 
yond the common lot. In all the graces and excellencies of a Chris- 
tian household, we feel justified in saying it finds few parallels. And 
to us, it seems no small praise, that one is able to train up a family 
in such perfect beauty and simplicity. 

And now to the many admirers and humble disciples of a studi- 
ous, laborious, useful and eminent counsellor and judge, may we not 
be allowed to commend the words of Tacitus : " Sic memoriam 
venerari, ut omnia facta dictaque ejus secum revolvant, famamque ac 



16 

figuram animi magis quam corporis, complectantur. Sed ut vultus 
hominum, ita simulacra vultus imbecilla ac mortalia sunt ; forma 
mentis aeterna ; quam tenerc et exprimere, non per alienam materiam 
et artem, sed tuis ipse moribus, possis." — Julii Agric. Vita, Cap. 46. 



BIOGRArniCAL NOTICE 

Prepared at the request of the Rev. John L. Blake, D D for the 
next edition of his " General Biographical Dictionary:' 



CHARLES KILBORN WILLIAMS, LL. D., 

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, President of tlic Council of 
(.^cnsors, and Governor of the State of Vermont, the son of 
the Rev. Samuel Williams, LL. D., Professor of Matbcmatics 
and Natural Philosophy in Harvard University from 1780 to 1788. 
and afterwards the Historian of Vermont, was horn at Cambridge, 
Mass., January 24, 1782, removed to Rutland, Vt.,in 1790, where 
he resided till his death, March 9th, 1853. He graduated at Wil- 
liams College in 1800, was appointed Tutor in that institution in 
1802, but declined the appointment, and, at tjje time of his decease 
was President of the Society of the Alumni of that College. He 
was admitted to the bar in Rutland County, Vt., in 1803, and had 
ever after, except when in the public service, an extensive' practice, 
and was deservedly held in high estimation as a lawyer. In a mili- 
tary capacity, he was, in 1808, entrusted with the command of the 
first detachment of the militia of Vermont that was ever called into 
active service after the admission of Vermont into the Union, which 
detachment was draughted and served for three months on the fron- 
tier, in enforcing the embargo act (as it was generally termed) of 
the General Government; which act. was at that time so obnoxious 
that the ordinary civil authorities were insufficient for its enforcement. 
Ho at this time held the rank only of Major, belonged to the politi- 
cal party which was opposed to the law, and being but twenty-six- 
years of age, and without military experience, it was, indeed, and 
was at that time so regarded, a more than ordinary, but no more 
than a just acknowledgment of his ability, integrity, and patriotism. 



17 

that he was selected for so delicate and difficult a commaud, and that, 
too, hy one (Gov. Smith) belonging to the o^Dposite political party 
from that of Major W. The duties of this command were satisfacto- 
rily and successfiilly discharged; and during the war of 1812 Major 
W. again served his country in a similar capacity during one cam- 
paign on the same frontier. He represented the town of Rutland in 
the General Assembly of the State during the years 1809, 1811, 
1814, 1815, 1820, 1821, and subsequently in 1849, his last election 
being by the joint acquiescence of all political parties, and by a 
nearly unanimous vote of his townsmen. He was State's Attorney 
for the County of Rutland for the years 1814 and 1815; a Judge 
of the Supreme Court during the years 1823 and 1824; was elected 
to the same office for the succeeding year, but declined to accept it, 
and was soon after appointed Collector of the Customs of the U. S. 
Government for the District of Vermont, which office he held until 
October, 1829, when he resigned it in consequence of being again 
elected to the Bench of the Supreme Court. From 1829 to 1846 
he was annually, and usually unanimously, elected a Judge ; and 
during the last' thirteen years of this period he was the Chief Justice 
of the Supreme Court and ex officio a Chancellor of the State of 
Vermont. And it is to be noted, as an unusual testimonial to his 
qualifications for the office, that his elevation from an Associate to 
the Chief- Justiceship , in 183-3, was without his previous expectation 
or assent, over a previous incumbent of opposite political principles, 
and by a legislature, the political sentiments of a majority of whom 
coincided with those of his opponent, and differed from those of his 
own. 

In 1834 he received from Middlebury College the honorary de- 
gi-ee of Doctor of Laws. In 1846 he peremptorily declined a re- 
election as Chief Justice, on account of his advanced age, and de- 
termined to spend the remainder of his days in retirement ; Ijut, in 
1847, he was selected by each of the three rival political parties 
which then existed, and his name placed at the head of their several 
lists of candidates for the Council of Censors — their tickets being 
different, independent, and strictly partizan as to all their other can- 
didates. Judge W. did not feel at liberty to decline this united call, 
and in the election he received the unanimous, while his twelve as- 
sociates were not elected by even a majority, so evenly were the par- 

9 



81 

ties clivicled, but only by a plurality vote ; and, upon tlie assembling 
of the Council he was unanimously elected its President. Being 
thus recalled into public life, he was, in 1850, put in nomination by 
the whig party for the office of Governor. Judge W. had always 
entertained and avowed very decided anti-slavery sentiments, and had 
permitted the use of his name, by the friends of that cause, in the 
gubernatorial elections of 1842 and 1843. His known sentiments 
upon this subject, united with the personal esteem in which he was 
held, secured for tliis nomination a majority of the popular suffrages, 
and he was, both in 1850 and 1851, elected Governor by the people, 
a result which, with other candidates, had not been attained for seve- 
ral years before. In his annual Message to the Legislature, in 1851, 
he declined being a candidate for re-election after the expu'ation of 
that official year, which did not terminate until October, 1852. 

Governor Williams was, as must be obvious to all, from the above 
sketch, a man of gi-eat and decided personal worth. In his social 
intercourse he was aiFable and kind ; in his family relations, a model 
husband and father; and withal, in every relation and situation of 
either public or private life, an exemplary christian. 



OBITUARY NOTICES. 



[From the Rutland County Herald of March 12, 1853.] 
Died, at his residence in Rutland, on Wednesday evening, Marcli 
9tb, the Hon. Charles Kilborn Williams. He was the youngest 
son of Dr. Samuel Williams, the historian of Vermont, and who, like 
his son, the subject of this notice, was long a resident of Rutland. 
Charles Kilborn Williams was born January 24th, 1782, at Cam- 
bridge, Mass., and was therefore seventy-one years of age on the 24th 
of last January. He graduated at Williams College, Mass., in 1800; 
studied law with Cephas Smith, Jr., at Rutland; was admitted to 
the Bar of the Rutland County Court, in 1803. He was State's 
Attorney for the County of Rutland for the years 1814 and 1815. 
He was appointed one of the Judges of the Supreme Court in 1822, 
and held the office until 1824, at which time he resigned and re- 
ceived the appointment of Collector of the United States Revenue 
for the District of Vermont, which appointment he resigned in 1829, 
when he was again appointed one of the Judges of the Supreme 
Court, which office he continued to hold until 1846, when in the exe- 
cution of an often expressed wish, and contrary to the warm impor- 
tunities of many friends, he again absolutely and finally declined a 
re-election. 

In 1848, he was a member of the Council of Censors, of which 
body he was chosen President. In 1850 and 1851, he was elected 
Grovernor of the State. In 1834, he i-eceived the honorary degree of 
Doctor of Laws from Middlebury College. In 1833, he was ap- 
pointed Chief Justice of the State, which office he continued to hold 
by annual re-election, until he declined further services in that ardu- 
ous post. From the time of his admission to the Bar until the time 
of his appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court, he was a law- 



20 

yer with an extensive practice. During a portion of this time, he 
represented the town of his residence in the Legislature of Vermont, 
and also passed a part of his life in the service of his country in the 
field. In early as in later life, he took great interest in the proper 
organization of the militia, and in due course and order of promo- 
tion passed from the ranks to the station of Brigadier General. 

In 1817, he married Lucy G. Langdox, the daughter of that emi- 
nent lawyer, the late Chauncy Langdon, who has borne him nine 
children, seven of whom survive him. 

From this brief and meagre sketch of his life, it will be seen that 
as it has been a long, so has it been a busy one ; and when it is 
added that all the diversified duties of these offices have been well 
performed, it will be admitted that at least the outlines of the life 
and character of no ordinary man have been drawn. This is not the 
time nor the occasion to speak of his public life, his public services, 
or his character as a statesman and a jurist. They are and will be 
part of the history of a State of which he was a favorite son ; and 
in them there is nothing of which she may not well be proud. 

The record of his public services and its results, the fruit of years 
of patient study and studious thought remains ; but the volume of 
matured practical wisdom, sweetened by delightful personal iuter- 
coiu'se, and rendered more attractive by most engaging manners, de- 
rived from long experience and close observation of the world, is 
forever closed. In the loss of a neighbor and friend, a deep sorrow 
has fallen upon this community ; but if we may not yet speak at 
length of his public character, still less dare we intrude into the 
sacred circle of grief which mourns for such a husband and such a 
father. 



[From the Vermont Statk Banner of March 12th.] 
Death of Hon. Charles K. Williams. — Hon. Charles K. Wil- 
liams expired very suddenly at his residence, in Rutland, at an early 
hour on Thursday morning last, of a disease of the heart — a difficul- 
ty under which he had been laboring for a series of years. He was 
one of the ablest men in the State— as a jurist, there probably is not 
his equal. He was for many years Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court, and for the last two years Governor of the Commonwealth ; 



21 

both of -wliicli important trusts lie filled with honor to himself and 
credit to the State. The first office named above he might have held 
till the day of his death, had his health been such as to warrant bis 
accepting the appointment. It was at his own request that another 
was put in his place upon the bench. As a private citizen, his char- 
acter was above reproach — as a Christian, he was always consistent 
and devoted, and his daily walk and conversation, such as to lead all 
to admire his ways — as a scholar, he was in every way fitted to adorn 
any station which might have been put upon him — as a true patriot, 
his heart was such as to embrace his whole country. He ever 
abhorred the system of slavery, and through a long life was a bold 
champion of the oppresed. " Peace to his ashes" — he is now gathered 
to his rest. 



[From the Middleeuky Register of March 16th.] 

Death of Ex-Gov. Williams. — Hon. Charles Kilborn Williams, 
late Governor of this state, and for many years Chief Justice of our 
Supreme Court, died very suddenly at his residence in Rutland, 
on Wednesday evening last. He had been about as usual through 
the day, and had retired apparently in his ordinary health. He 
was found dead in bed by his wife, who retired at a later hour. His 
disease was supposed to be an affection of the heart. 

Judge Williams was one of the ablest and most prominent of our 
public men ; kind and courteous in all his intercourse ; exemplary in 
his private life ; and a devout and consistent communicant of the 
Episcopal Church. His loss will be deeply felt throughout the 
State, and most keenly at his own fireside, where he had anticipated 
much happiness in passing the declining years of his life, freed from 
all public cares. He had arrived at a good old age, having been 
born, we believe, in the same year with Daniel Webster. He was 
seventy-one years of age on the 24th day of January last . 

The deceased was a native of Cambridge, Mass., and a graduate 
of Williams College, at Williamstown, Mass. 

He first permanently located himself as a lawyer at Rutland, 
where he resided until his death. He represented that town in the 
Legislature of 1809, 1811, 1814 '15, 1820 '21, and again in 1849. 
In 1822, he was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court, and held 



22 

the office for two years. In 1829, lie was again elected to the same 
place, and was re-elected each year until 1846, when he declined 
another election. He was Chief Justice from 1833 to 1840. In 
1850, he was elected Governor, and re-elected in 1851, in both in- 
stances by a majority of the popular vote — being the only Governor 
since 1844 who has been chosen without the intervention of the 
Legislature. 

At a meeting of the Bar of Rutland, at the office of the County 
Clerk, on Thursday, the death of the late Governor Williams having 
been announced, it was 

" Resolved, That his character, his station, and his virtues call for 
an especial testimony of respect and honor to his remains and his 
memory : Therefore, the attendance of the Bar is invited to his 
funeral, to bo held at his residence, at half-past eleven o'clock, a. m., 
on Saturday, the 12th inst." 



[From the Republican Standard of March 17th.] 
Sudden Death. — Hon. Charles K. Williams was found dead in 
his bed, at his residence in Rutland, Vt., on the evening of the 9th 
inst. His age was very nearly 70 years. No man has filled a larg- 
er space in the history of Vermont. He was Collector of Customs 
during the administration of President Adams, and being removed 
by Gen. Jackson, was elected a Judge of the Supreme Court by 
the Legislature. He subsequently became Chief Justice, which 
office he filled for nearly twenty years. On resigning that office, he 
was for two years elected Governor of the State. He filled these 
several offices with distinguished ability and fidelity. His father was 
the distinguished Rev. Dr. Samuel Williams, who wrote the history 
of Vermont, and his gi-eat-grandfather was the Rev. Mr. Williams 
who was taken prisoner by the Indians at the time of the destruc- 
tion of Deerfield, during the French war, and whose captivity and 
subsequent release form a somewhat romantic episode in the history 
of those times. 



[From the Green Mountain Freeman, of March 17.] 
Death of Gov. Williams. — We arc pained to announce this week 
the sudden and unexpected death of the Hon. Charles K. Williams, 



23 

of Rutlaml, who, we understand, was found dead in his bed on Wed- 
nesday evening of last week. His death is a public loss, and liis 
history is the history of our State, of which, as a jurist, a scholar, 
and as a man, we have ever deemed him one of the brightest orna- 
ments. 



[From the Buelingtox Free Press of March ISth.] 
Death of Ex-Gov. Williams. — We learn with profound regret 
that the Hon. Charles Kilborn Williams, late Governor of the State, 
and for many years the distinguished and able Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court of Vermont, died very suddenly at his residence in 
Rutland, on Wednesday evening, the 9th inst. We are informed 
that Judge Williams had been somewhat indisposed dui-ing the day, 
and previously, but in no degree was it supposed seriously so, and 
that he retired to his bed as usual on the evening referred to, where 
he was found some time afterwards, by iVIrs. Williams, dead! 

It is not for us to attempt to speak of the character and public 
services of this deservedly eminent citizen, whose fine general scho- 
larship, judicial learning, profound and enlightened judguient, and 
incorruptible integrity, were known and appreciated much beyond 
the limits of the State which numbered him among her most honored 
sons. To other and better informed pens must be left the grateful 
task of writing Ms appropriate obituary and eulogium. 



[From the New England Historical and Genealogical EEGiSTr:K,for 
April, 1853.] 

Died. — At Rutland, Vt., on the 9th March, Hon. Charles Kil- 
BOiiN Williams, LL. D., very suddenly, (B. 71 years, 1 month and 
14 days, having been born 24th January, 1782. Mr. W. was the 
youngest son of that eminent philosopher and historian Rev. Samuel 
Williams, by Jane, daughter of Eliphalet Kilborn. His grandftither 
was Rev. Warham W., of Waltham, who was son of Rev. John 
Williams, of Deerfield, (so widely known as the redeemed captive,) 
by Eunice, daughter of Rev. Eleazcr Mather, and grand-daughter of 
Rev. John Warham. 

Mr. Williams filled the highest ofiices in his State with gveat 



24 

ability, and the approbation of tbe people. To know Mr. W, was 
to know a pattern of excellence. Mr. Williams took a lively interest 
in the New England Historical and Grenealogical Society, of which 
he was a member. 



[From The Independent of April 2d ] 
Died in Eutland, Vt., March 9, Hon. Charles K. Williams, 
aged 71 years, for many years Chief Justice and afterwards Gov- 
ernor of Vermont. He was a son of Rev. Samuel Williams, LL. D., 
formerly a Professor in Harvard College, and afterwards the Histo- 
rian of Vermont. He was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court 
in 1822 and again in 1829 ; Chief Justice in 1833, and re-elected 
yearly until 1846, when he declined further service. In 1850 and 
1851 he was Governor of the State by the choice of the people — 
his known uncompromising hostility to slavery securing to him a 
greater popularity than was enjoyed by any other citizen. He was 
the author of the Act for the Security of Personal Freedom, by 
which every person taken as a fugitive from labor has a jury trial 
before a state Court. 



[From the New York Daily Times of April 8th.] 
Ex-GovERNOE Williams. — We have already announced the death, 
at his residence in Rutland, of Hon. Charles K. Williams, late Gov- 
ernor of Vermont. The close of a life so illustrious is deserving of 
a wider notice than has been bestowed upon it by the public press, 
The circumstances attending his death were somewhat remarkable. 
He retired in his usual state of health, about 9 o'clock at night, and 
was found lifeless in iiis bed about an hour afterwards. He had 
made no complaints during the day of being unwell, and no one in 
the fomily had noticed any thing unusual in his appearance. His 
body was not opened but his death is supposed to have been occasioned 
by a disease of the heart. 

Governor Williams was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 
24th January, 1782, and was of course in the seventy-second year 
of his age, at the time of his death. He was the youngest son of 
Dr. Samuel Williams, who was long a resident of Rutland, and was 



25 

the author of an excellent history of Vermont. Ho graduated at 
Williams College, in his native State, studied his profession at Rut- 
land, and was admitted to practice at the Bar of the Rutland County 
Court, in 1803. He was extensively engaged in the practice of his 
profession for nearly twenty years thereafter, and, during that time, 
represented the town of Rutland, in the Legislature of Vermont, and 
was also employed in the service of his country in the field. As a 
military man he rose from the ranks to the station of a Brigadier Gen- 
eral and at all times took much interest in the proper organization of 
the Militia. In 1822 he was appointed Judge of the Supreme 
Court of Vermont, which ofl&ce he resigned on receiving the appoint- 
ment of Collector of Customs, as successor to Mr. Van Ness, in 
1824. In 1829 Judge Williams resigned the office of Collector, and 
was re-elected Judge of the Supreme Court, which office he continued 
to hold, by consecutive annual elections, till 1846; at which time he 
peremptorily declined a re-election. He held the office of Chief 
Justice from 1833, till he declined in 1846; In 1834 he received 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, from one of the Colleges 
in Vermont. In 1848 he was elected, by a unanimous vote of the 
Freemen of the State, as one of the Council of Censors, of which 
body he was chosen President. In 1850 he was elected by the peo- 
ple to the office of Grovernor of Vermont and re-elected by the popu- 
lar vote in 1851. At the end of his second year he declined a re- 
election. He is the only man who has been elected Governor by the 
people of Vermont, for several years past. It was dui-ing his admin- 
istration that the Legislature of that State, passed the celebrated 
Habeas Corpus Act, which has been so much more generally de- 
nounced than understood. But that Act is still among the Statute 
Laws of the State, and a future age will do justice to the spirit of 
the people who passed and sustained it. Governor Williams made it 
the subject of an elaborate vindication in his last annual Message. 

For thu'teen years, Judge Williams was Chief Justice of the Su- 
preme Court of the State. As a jurist he was cotemporary (though 
they were not all on the bench together) with Van Ness, Prentiss, 
Phelps, Royce, Collamer, and Mattocks — ^names respected by all who 
are familiar with the judicial history of the State. And when we 
say that for the accuracy and copiousness of his legal learning, he 
was at least equal to any one of them, we assert what no man who 



26 

knew tliem all will deny. He was indeed a man of vast learning in 
his profession, of remarkable industry, great purity of personal char- 
acter, strong in his attachments, and, perhaps it may be admitted, 
(but certainly without any imputation upon his integrity,) strong in 
his prejudices also. 

From the brief sketch we have given of his public services, it is 
sufficiently apparent that it requhed a rare combination of talents to 
administer successfully the various offices which he held. And yet 
we believe no one ever questioned the ability or integrity by which 
his official life was distinguished. He discharged, indeed, every 
public duty with the utmost care and fidelity. And though he has 
departed from the busy stage of action, he has left behind him, in 
the jurisprudence of Vermont, an enduring monument, honorable 
alike to himself and to the State in whose service so large a portion 
of his life was passed. 



[From the CncRCHMAN of April 30th.] 
EX-GOVERNOR WILLIAMS. 

We observed some weeks ago, with very great regi'et, the 
death of this eminent magistrate and most estimable man ; and 
have been looking ever since to receive such points of authentic 
information as would enable us to make some suitable and becoming 
notiee of him. This was partly supplied last week by an article in 
the New York Daily Times, and what was chiefly wanting in that, 
for our use, has since been made up to us through the favor of a 
private corresjiondent. 

The Hon. Charles K. Williams, LL. D., died at his residence 
in Rutland, Vermont, the 9th of March, at the age of 71. His 
death is supposed to have been occasioned by a disease of the heart. 
On the day of his death he made no complaints of being specially 
unwell ; retired about 9 o'clock at night, and was found lifeless in 
his bed about an hour afterwards. 

Grovernor Williams was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 
24th of January, 1782. He was the youngest son of the Rev. 
Samuel Williams, LL. D., a Congregational Minister, and favorably 
known as the author of a History of Vermont. Having graduated 



27 

at Williams College, he returned to Rutland, where his fatlier lived, 
entered upon the study of the law, and was admitted to the bar in 
1803. He was extensively engaged in the practice of his profession 
for nearly twenty years thereafter, and, during that time, represented 
the town of Rutland in the Legislature of Vermont, and was also 
employed in the service of his country in the field. As a military 
man he rose from the ranks to the station of a Brigadier General, 
and at all times took much interest in the proper organization of the 
militia. In 1822 he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of 
Vermont, which office he resigned on receiving the appointment of 
Collector of the Customs, as successor to Mr. Van Ness, in 1824. 
In 1829, Judge Williams resigned the office of Collector, and was 
re-elected Judge of the Supreme Court, which office he continued to 
hold, by consecutive annual elections, till 1846; at which time he 
peremptorily declined a re-election. He held the office of Chief 
Justice from 1833 till he declined in 1846. In 1834 he received 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from one of the colleges in 
Vermont. In 1848 he was elected, by a unanunous vote of the 
freemen of the State, as one of the Council of Censors, of which 
body he was chosen President. In 1850 he was elected by the peo- 
ple to the office of Governor of Vermont, and was re-elected by the 
popular vote in 1851. At the end of his second year he deelmed a 
re-election. He is the only man who has been elected Governor by 
he people of Vermont for several years past. 

For thirteen years Judge Williams was Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the State. As a jurist, he was cotemporary 
(though they were not all on the bench together) with Van Ness, 
Prentiss, Phelps, Royce, CoUamer, and Mattocks — names respected 
by all who are familiar with the judicial history of the State. And 
when we say that for the accuracy and copiousness of his legal learn- 
ing, he was at least equal to any one of them, we assert what no one 
who knew them all will deny. He was, indeed, a man of vast 
learning in his profession, of remarable industry, great purity of 
personal character, strong in his attachments, and, perhaps it may 
be admitted, (but certainly without any imputation upon his integ- 
rity,) strong in his prejudices also. 

From this brief sketch of his public services, which we condense 
from the Times, it is apparent enough that he must have possessed a 



28 

rare combination of talents to administer successfully the various 
offices which he held. And yet we believe no one ever questioned 
the ability or integrity by which his official life was distinguished. 
He discharged, indeed, every public duty with the utmost care and 
fidelity. And though he has departed from the busy stage of action, 
he has left behind him, in the jurisprudence of Vermont, an endur- 
ing monument, honorable alike to himself and to the State in whose 
service so large a portion of his life was passed. 

Of course Governor Williams was educated in the faith of the 
denomination to which his father belonged. We are competently 
assured that no man of his day was better acquainted with the eccle- 
siastical history of New England. His extensive reading brought 
him to understand the system of the Church ; and with a man of his 
large thought, liberal sentiment, and fii-m legal training, such a mag- 
nificent and nobly-proportioned system of doctrine and polity, where- 
in the motions of life are at once restrained and deepened by the 
strong-handed, yet gentle and benignant discipline of order and law, 
could hardly fail of success : to see it as it is, was to be irresistibly 
attracted towards it. Accordingly, when, in 1831, it was proposed 
to establish a church parish in Rutland, Governor Williams readily 
fell in with the proposal, and was one of the most liberal contributors 
to the object. From that time he was a constant supporter of the 
church, and a regular and devout attendant on her services. In 1842 
he was confirmed by Bishop Hopkins ; was a member of the General 
Convention in 184:4, and one of the Committee on Canons. His 
steady and constant attendance on the public worship of the church 
was quite remarkable. On Sundays and on week-days he was seen 
in his place, unless absent from home or detained by sickness ; and 
his deportment there was that of a worshipper, not of a spectator. 
In his family, also, he maintained daily morning and evening prayer. 
On the evening of his death, though he had been for several days 
considerably indisposed, he waited for the return of his family from 
abroad, that he might not omit the customary devotions. Imme- 
diately after that solemn exercise, he rctu-ed to his chamber ; and it 
is believed that he ceased to breathe as soon as he laid his head upon 
the pillow, leaving to his family the consolation that he closed his 
life in prayer. 



PKOCEEDINGS Oi' THE RUTLAND COUNTY BAR, 



County Clerk's Office, Rutland, 10th March, 1853. 

At a meetino' of the Members of the Bar, residino; in Rutlaud, 
held at the County Clerk's Office, on the 10th of March, 1853, 

.The sudden death of His Excellency, the late Governor Williams 
having been announced, it was 

Resolved, That his character, his station, and his virtues call for 
an especial testimony of respect and honor to his remains and his 
memory ; Therefore, The attendance of the Bar is invited to his 
funeral, to be held at his residence at half past 11 o'clock, A. M., 
on Saturday, the 12th inst. 

F. W. HOPKINS, County Clerk. 



PKOCEEDINGIS of the WASHINGTON COUNTY BAK, 

ON THE DEATH OF THE HON. CIIAHLES K. WILLIAMS. 



At a meeting of the Washington County Bar, on the 11th inst., 
upon the announcement of the death of the Hon. Charles K. 
Williams, of Rutland, Vt., late Chief Justice, and ex-Governor 
of the State, the following resolutions were presented by Messrs. 
0. H. Smith, H. Carpenter, and T. P. Redfield, and were unani- 
mously adopted. 

Messrs. Paul Dillingham, 0. H. Smith, and T. P. Redfield were 
appointed delegates of the Bar to attend the funeral of the de- 
ceesad. 



30 

Upon the coming In of the Court on the morning of the 14th inst. 
the rcsohitions were presented by Mr. Redfield with appropriate re. 
marks, alluding to the high respect and esteem entertained by the 
members of the bar for the deceased, the appreciation of the loss 
they and the State have sustained in his death, and the sympathy 
expressed for the family in their affliction, and requesting that the 
court permit the resolutions to be entered upon the files and records 
of tlie court. 

The Hon. Jacob CoUamer entertained the resolutions, and alluded 
with much feeling to the arduous and important services Mr. Wil- 
liams had rendered the State, with whom he was associated nine 
years upon the Bench — that the sentiments of the resolutions were 
but a deserving tribute to his memory, and that, in all the relations 
of life, he had been an eminent and devoted public servant, and an 
accomplished christian gentleman, and directed that the resolutions 
be entered upon the files and records of the court. 

Resolved, That we receive the announcement of the death of the 
late Chief Justice Williams with deep regret. 

Resolved, That his long and devoted service upon the Bench, his 
learning, firmness and undoubted integrity as a jurist, have contribu- 
ted largely to establish the jurisprudence of the State upon a firm 
basis, and give it a reputation and character abroad, and has given 
him a character adorned as it has been in social and domestic rela- 
tions, by manly and christian virtues, that has placed his name high 
in rank amons; those who have done the State service, and entitle 
his memory to be cherished. 

Resolved, That we sympathize with the surviving members of his 
family, in this domestic affliction and public loss ; and tender to them 
our sincei-e condolence. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be placed upon the 
files and records of this Honorable Court, and a copy also transmit- 
ted to the family of the deceased, as a token and evidence of our 
remembrance and regard. 

M. H SESSIONS, rresident. 
Ai.piiA C. May, Secretary. 
Washington County Court, March 14th, 18f^3. 



31 

PROCEEDINGS OF THE BENNINGTON CO. BAR. 



Bennington County Clerk's Office, March 15, 1S53. 

At a meeting of the members of the Bennington County Bar, 
called on the occasion of the decease of our late Governor Williams, 
who for many years held the office of Chief Justice of the State, 
Samuel H. Blackmer was appointed Chairman, and James L. Stark, 
Jr., Secretary. 

On motion it was resolved that a committee of three be appointed 
to draft resolutions for the action of the meeting, to express their 
sentiments on the event which called them together ; and David 
Robinson, Henry Robinson, and N. B. Hall, Esqs., were appointed 
such Committee. 

The following resolutions were presented by David Robinson, Esq., 
chairman of the committee, and, after being read, were unanimously 
adopted : 

" JResolred, That the deceased, in all his relative situations through 
life, his virtuous and eminent example at the bar, on the bench, in 
the chair of State, and in his social connections, is entitled to the 
highest honors and to our sincere respect. 

''Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with the family in their 
bereavement, and as a mark of our respect for them, and for the 
memory of the honored deceased, we will wear crape on the left arm 
for thirty days. 

"Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the 
family of the deceased ; also, that the same be pul)lished in our 
county paper. S. H. BLACKMER, Chairman. 

" Jas. L. Stark, Jr., Secretary.''^ 



[Fi-om the State Banner of March 1 9th, containing the published pro- 
ceedings of the above meeting.] 

The following letter, written by a member of the Bennington Co. 
Bar, who was unable to attend the meeting, is so faithful and de- 
served a tribute to the memory of the honored deceased that we arc 
happy to avail ourselves of the same for publication. 

There was no trait in the judicial character of Judge Williams 
more strongly marked, nor more universally admired, than that which 



32 

is so justly and feelingly alluded to by the -writer of this letter wheu 
he refers to the steady adherence to truth and justice, and the con- 
stant and ready vindication of these eternal principles, under all 
circumstances and on all occasions, which characterized this truly 
eminent man : 

"Manchester, March 15, 1853. 

"N. B. Hall, Esq. — Dear Sir: The good do not always die 
young. It sometimes pleases a gracious Providence, as if to preserve 
upon earth the memory of the virtuous, and illustrate to mankind 
the reality of their existence, to ^^reserve to three-score and ten, 
such as have been eminent among their fellows for their fidelity to 
truth, then." love of justice, and obedience to duty. Such stand as 
land-marks for the ages, guide-posts pointing ever the road to excel- 
lence — or, rather, stars fixed in the moral heavens, whereby to set 
aright the errors of the times. Such was the ofiice of Charles K. 
Williams, and worthily was it filled. Let us rather thank Heaven 
that he has been preserved to mankind so long, than repine that 
Heaven has at last taken him up. 

If the body of the pole-star were removed from the heavens, its 
light would still come down to us, steady and undimmed, for many 
ages ; so, I trust, the radiance of his example is to continue for many 
years to light the path of us, his younger brethren, to what is truth- 
ful in jurisprudence, honest in law practice, just in all the relations 
of private and public life, beautiful in morals and Divine in religion. 
Let us remember his kindness, his integrity and purity of life as a 
citizen. As a Judge, let us remember his impartiality, his strong 
sense of justice, and (for we can never forget) how the impassiveness 
of the judge was wont to warm into something of the ancient pro- 
phets' fire, whenever the strong appeared in his Court striving to 
oppress the weak, or craft was found seeking to entangle simplicity 
in the meshes of law. In such case, a law trial before Judge Wil- 
liams was an illustrated moral lecture — a glorious thing to listen to 
and look upon. His extensive research and legal lore, his acuteness 
and accuracy of mental vision, are happily preserved, in a form not 
to be forgotten, among the enduring records of jurisprudence. As 
the Chief Magistrate of the State, it is enough to say that his ad- 
ministration was cr^iditable to himself and to the State. 



33 

We cannot all be as learned or wise as he. But to the humblest 
among us it may pertain to be as truthful, as honest, as pure of heart 
and of life, as fast bound to the sentiment of duty ; and hereto let 
us rather study to attain, as being the best end of life. 

Having gazed upon the venerable face of the honored dead, and 
helped to lay him in his grave, I must forego, in obedience to other 
calls upon me, the sad pleasure of meeting the Bennington County 
Bar to-day, to arrange a chaplet for his tomb, but send you instead 
this In Jlemoriam. I am very truly yours, 

DANIEL EGBERTS. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SUPBEME COURT AT WOODSTOCK. 



Present .-—Hon. ISAAC F. KEDFIELD, Chief Justice. 

Hon. PIERPOINT ISHAM, ^ Assistant Judges 
Hon. MILO L. BENNETT, j assistant Juages. 



At a meeting of the Bar of Windsor County at the Court House, 
on the morning of the 11th of March, A. D. 1853, the State's At- 
torney, W. C. Fkench, Esq., presiding. 

On Motion, 

Resolved, That a Committee of three be appointed to draft reso- 
lutions expressive of the feelings and sentiments of the Bar occasioned 
by the recent death of our distinguished fellow citizen, the Hon. 
Charles K. Williams, LL, D., of Rutland, and that the same, 
being adopted, be presented to the Supreme Court, now in session, 
to-morrow morning, at the opening of the Court. 

Hon. Carlos Coolidge, Hon. Andrew Tracy and Hon. John S. 
Marcy were appointed such Committee. 

The Meeting adjourned to 9 o'clock to-morrow morning. 

Saturday Morning, March 12. 

The Committee appointed yesterday reported Resolutions, which 
were adopted as follows : — 

Resolved, That we have learned with the most profound regret of 
the death of the Hon. Charles K. Williams. 

Resolved, That by his death Vermont has lost a citizen, who, for 
nineteen years, gave strength and lustre to the bench of our Supreme 
Court, and thereby established for himself a character, which has 

3 



34 

given him a rank witli the ablest jurists of the country ; — that while 
wc thus recognise his high judicial character, we accord to him the 
personal virtues which adorn the Christian citizen and the pub- 
lic ofiBcer in all the relations of life ; — that wc honor him for the hon- 
or he has conferred on our State, our Judiciary, and our profession ; 
— that we shall gratefully cherish his memory for the qualities which 
rendered him equally the patron of professional and personal merit, 
— the courteous presiding Judge, and the kind and sincere friend. 

Resolved, That the Court be requested to order a copy of these 
resolutions and of the proceedings on this occasion to be entered in 
the records of the present term of this Court. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions, with the proceedings 
of the Court and Bar on this occasion, be certified by the Clerk of the 
Court and sent to the bereaved family of the deceased. 

Thereupon, Gov. Coolidgc presented the resolutions to the Court, 
addressing the Court as follows : 
3Iay it please your Honors : 

As the organ of a Committee of the Bar of this County, I come 
to announce to your honorable body the decease of Charles K. Wil- 
liams, late Chief Justice of this Court, and more recently Governor 
of the State. 

In those of you who, for many years, took counsel together with 
him in the walks of judicial life, and knew his vii'tues, this event 
must have already revived, in full freshness, the recollection of the 
hours of labor and of the scenes of recreative companionship, which 
you had the happiness to pass with him. 

To all of you, as to all of us, it speaks with more than ordinary 
impressiveness of the little value which the richest reward of the 
loftiest ambition bears, when the day has passed and the night has 
come "when no man can work." 

Judge Williams was eminent among eminent men. As a jurist, 
and as a judge, he was greatly distinguished by those who knew how 
to discriminate between merit and pretension. Governed by inflexi- 
ble integrity, he united with it much amenity of manner. His acqui- 
sitions of legal lore were large. It was his felicity in his administra- 
tion of the law and m the justness of his aims in it, to commend 
himself to every man's conscience. The repeated bestowals on hun of 
popular honors, evincive of the never-failing couGdcnce reposed iu 



35 

him by tlic pooplo, amply attest tlicir sense of personal worth, and 
their high appreciation of his public services. 

AVhen such a man dies — though he " come to the grave in a full 
age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season," — the heart shrinks 
away, for the moment, from its fondest aspiration ; and we feel sad, 
as though, for him and for us, the inevitable hour had come too soon. 
So it is — the deceased, who came up fi'om an age past — an age whose 
story will not be forgotten — has long lingered on the parting-ground 
only, now, to drop from our sight forever. 

In his first season of manhood, Judge Williams began to identify 
himself, by sympathy and effort, with the great interests of this 
State, and he sought their advancement under the inspiration of a 
zeal justly compounded of a desire for personal distinction and of the 
sentiment of genuine patriotism. It was, therefore, the result that, 
wliilc he loved and labored for the applause which the good confer 
and which every generous and elevated mind courts, he escaped, as 
such an one should, both private and public calumny. His relations 
with our Commonwealth were intimate, and his services too con- 
spicuous and valuable to be ever erased from her history. Allien we 
remember how important a part he has acted in aiding to establish 
the general policy of this State, and in giving compactness and sym- 
metry to her most highly prized institutions, we may say, without 
incurring censure for over-wrought panegyric, that in hia death wo 
sustain a heavy public loss. 

But this is not the occasion for an extended eulogy. Nor does 
it belong to me to make one. Others will be found more able to 
render to the excellent character of the departed the tribute of praise 
it deserves. To them I commit the duty. 

In behalf of the Bar, I offer resolutions adopted liy that liod3% 
and respectfully request that the Court order the same to be put 
upon the records, there to remain as a memorial of our respect for 
the deceased. 

To which Chief Justice ricdficld responded as follows : 

We very fully accord with all the sentiments contained in tlic reso- 
lutions, and in the address of Gov. Coolidge. My own relations to 
Judge Williams have been of that intimate character, more filial, 
j)erhaps, tlian I have ever su.stained to any other, in professional or 
l)ublic life, that it is dliru-iilt fi>r me to speak of him, willmut, in 



36 

some sense, seeming to over-estimate his merits. I am among the 
number of those who feel that he, more than most other eminent and 
distinguished men, would always be more highly prized the more in- 
timately he was known. With some men, perhaps with most men, 
nearness of relation is liable to dim. somewhat, the brightness of 
their apparent excellencies. But with me, in regard to Judge Wil- 
liams, it has been otherwise. From the first to the last our increas- 
ing intimacy has but constantly served to increase my admiration of 
his talents and his virtues. 

His advantages were, no doubt, quite superior to those which fall 
to the general lot of the profession. His father was a distinguished 
scholar, and no doubt devoted much care and pains to the education 
of his son. He himself graduated, in one of the early years of the 
present century, at Williams College ; and when he came to the 
bar, was regarded as highly educated in the profession, and no doubt 
was so. His general classical and literary reading he has kept up, 
more than is common perhaps in the profession ; and his acquaint- 
ance with the literature of the profession, so to speak, was uncommon. 

But the great debt which the State owes to Judge Williams seems 
to me to rest mainly upon his long service upon the bench of this 
Court. He came into this Court when our reports first become con- 
tinuous, and, with an interval of four years, while he was collector 
of customs in this district, he remained until the fall 184G, and for 
thirteen years he was Chief Justice. During eleven years I was as- 
sociated with him. And I may say, I think, without depreciating 
others, that there was in him an uncommon watchfulness and studi- 
ousness of effort to have, not only the cases which he decided, but 
all the cases, fully understood and correctly determined ; not with 
any spirit of of&cious intermeddling, for no man could be further from 
it, but to have them justly and correctly decided, and so as not to 
conflict with other decisions of the Court, — not for the purpose of 
carrying out his own opinions or theories, further than he felt them to 
be just, but to leave the body of our judicial decisions symmetrical 
as far as possible. He had less of the love of mastery, and more 
of the love of truth, than what is common even to eminent men. 

During all this long period, Judge Williams' cases have all been 
thoroughly examined, and elaborately and learnedly reported, and 
they form a very large portion of our judicial system, .so fiir as our 



37 

reports are coneonied. ITo too, more timn any other, from his lono' 
residence in the State, and his public position, and his capacity, and 
taste also, for such matters of investigation, I say more than any 
other with whom I have been intimate, possessed a minute know- 
ledge of the history of our legislatiou, and the traditional history of 
our judicial decisions and the practice of this Court, which to me 
made him a most useful adviser. I must always feel largely indebt- 
ed to him, on that as on many other grounds. 

He was too, in his judicial administration, wonderful for his wil- 
lingness to yield an opinion, when convinced it was no longer tena- 
ble. In all our differences of opinion in regard to eases, and in so 
long a term they have been many, and sometimes persevering and 
continued, I have always felt the most perfect conviction that if his 
difficulties could be removed, he would readily yield his opinion. I 
may well say, I fear he has found me less so, than I have found him, 
for I esteem such love of truth, such forgetfulness of self and selfish 
ends, a most desirable and difficult attainment. 

As his Christian character has been alluded to in the resolutions, 
I will say that I have never known any one, whose every act and 
word, seemed to me to be done more with a single and present and 
abiding reference to an ultimate accountability, than were his. But 
with him these things were kept very much to himself. 

I think the profession in this State is greatly indebted to him. As 
a model for imitation, in my judgment, we could scarcely propose to 
ourselves a better. His urbanity, his courtesy, was almost perfect, 
neither too much or too little, and his dignity was neither stiff or 
frigid ; and he was equally exempt from all levity, even when ho al- 
lowed himself to relax, as he gladly did, and which he knew how 
and when to do. I could say a great deal more, but could scarcely 
have said less. The Court will readily accede to the motion to ad- 
journ during the time appointed for the funeral. 

And thereupon the Court adjourned during the hours of the fune- 
ral of the deceased, till two o'clock this afternoon. 

After adjournment, at a meeting of the Bar, it was 

Resolved, That Gov. Coolidge and Judge Redfield be requested 
to furnish to the Clerk copies of their remarks, to be entered on the 
records of the Court as part of tlic proceedings on this occasion . 
and that the proceedings and remarks be published in the papers in 
this town. Norman Williams, Clerk. 



38 

[From the Appendix to the 21tli volume of the " Veemoxt REronxp"] 
HON. CHARLES KILBOIIN \VILLIA:\IS, LL. I>., 

LATE CIIIKP JTJSTICE OF THK SCPEEME COUHT. 



Wc have deemed it not inapproi)riate to place this brief memorial 
of one of the most distinguished ornaments of the bench of this State 
in the annual volume of the reports of the decisions of that court, 
wliere he presided for a longer term than any other one since the 
foundation of the State government. Tliis fact alone, in a State 
where the election of judges is annual, is altogether decisive of the 
general estimation in which his services, as a judge, were held. One 
may possibly hold a subordinate place for a long time, or the first 
place for a short time, and not justify such an inference ; but it is 
impossible to believe that any one should preside over the delibera- 
tions of the highest judicial tribunal in the State for thirteen years 
successively, with annual re-elections, and not possess eminent, we 
think wc may say almost unrivalled qualifications, Tor the place. 

And such, we believe, has been, and will always be, the general 
estimation in relation to the services of the Hon. Charles Kilborn 
Williams, LL. D., late Chief Justice of this court, who died sud- 
denly at his residence, in Rutland, during the night of the 9th of 
March, A. D. 1853, aged seventy-one years. Chief Justice Williams 
was born at Cambridge, Massaclmsotts, January 24th, 1782. His 
father, the late Rev. Samuel Williams, LL. D., was, at the time, the 
Professor of Mathematics in Harvard College, but removed to Rut- 
land, in this State, when his son was about seven years old, where 
the father and the son both resided till their death. 

Dr. Samuel Williams, as a scholar and divine, and especially as 
the early historian of the State, has left a very abiding and enviable 
reputation. And it is no doubt attended with many advantages to 
receive one's education under the eye of-such a father, which, without 
that, no mere culture of the schools can fully compensate. Charles 
K. Williams graduated at Williams College, in the year 1800, and 
studied the profession of law in Rutland, where he was admitted to 
the Bar in 1803. In 1817, he married the daughter of the Hon. 
Chauncy Langdon, who survives her Imsband. They had nine 
children, all of whom, save two, survived their fiither. Judge Wil- 
liams was more tlian ((inmionly ha])py in all the domestic relations. 



39 

as he was tilso eminently (qualified to impart liappine.^s in those fek' 
tions. His home seemed his chief solace and support during the 
exhausting labors of his long judicial service. 

He first came to the bench of the Supreme Court in the year 1822, 
and remained but two years. He then served in the office of Col- 
lector of Customs for the district of Vermont during the administra- 
tion of the younger Adams, and returned to the bench in tlic fall of 
1829, where he remained till the fall of 1846, when ho declined a 
re-election. He was two years Grovernor of this State, and declined 
a re-election, just before his death. 

It could answer no good purpose, perhaps, to dwell upon the 
character of this faithful servant of the State, in one of the most 
critical and exhausting, and, at the same time, least obtrusive, de- 
partments of the public service. It is probably true that his merits, 
as a judge, were as justly and as highly estimated by his fellow citi- 
zens as those of any other. If he was less known out of the State, 
it is because he had studiously avoided connecting himself in any 
way with the law journals, even by allowing them the publication of 
his opinions in advance of the regular reports, which is not uncom- 
mon. But with him, these things had too much the appearance of 
pretension, or love of publicity, on the one hand, and of condescen- 
sion and subserviency on the other, to meet the full approbation of 
that severe sense of propriety by which his own course was prescribed. 
He was, possibly, on this account, less known, and more highly es- 
teemed where he was known. For it is certain that many of his 
opinions have received more marked commendation from law writers 
of marked eminence out of the State than perhaps almost any others 
in our reports. And in regard to the jurisprudence of the State, 
(whatever it is,) so far as the reports are concerned, it unquestion- 
ably bears more distinctly the impress of his mind than of any other 
one. 

And whatever differences of opinion may exist in regard to the 
excellencies, or defects, of the late Chief Justice Williams, we can 
scarcely remember any one, whose virtues more decidedly prepon- 
derate, or whose judicial character could be more justly presented, 
as a model. His mind was active and almost electric, in its move- 
ments, and at the same time, so patient as to be far more than ordi- 
narily sure of reaching a just conclusion, and in the shortest possible 



40 

time. And if he sometimes flagged in the severity of his attention, 
under a protracted argument, it was not while the speaker was draw- 
ino- new truths from the old fountains and foundations of the law. 
His sense of justice, his incorruptible integrity and impartiality ; his 
willingness to suffer and to be sacrificed, if need be, in defence of 
truth and innocence, or in bringing falsehood and fraud to its merited 
reward; his purity, his dignity, his urbanity; his simplicity and 
singleness of heart, in all the relations of life, present his character, 
as at once the brightest for admiration, and the safest for imitation. 
If it should be thought by any, that like the patriarch, he had little 
to tempt him from, and much to support him in his high course of 
virtue and integrity, and that he was therefore deserving of less 
commendation ; although we certainly would not disparage, in any 
sense, the quiet decency and respectability of judicial life, one can 
scarcely refrain from feeling sometimes, that where the elections are 
annual, the salaries quite disproportioned to those paid in private life, 
for equal service, and the labor immense, and, at times, almost over- 
whelming, the position is not altogether so well calculated to sustain 
the mind and support the heart, as some others. And we trust it 
will not be regarded as offensive or personal, to say that the mere un- 
certainty of the tenure of the judicial office, while it is undoubtedly 
a safeguard to the State, is always a proportionate embarrassment to 
the incumbent, and one which, because it is not generally under- 
stood, is not sufficiently taken into account, in estimating the relative 
proportion of service and compensation. 



1 



